The Milwaukee Bucks feel like they’re on the verge of disaster barely a week into the 2024-25 NBA season, and it only keeps getting worse.
On Thursday, Milwaukee lost to a Memphis Grizzlies team without Desmond Bane and playing on the second night of a back-to-back. The Bucks are now 1-4 on the young season, and also have losses to the lowly Chicago Bulls and Brooklyn Nets. Milwaukee was one of the most desperate teams in the league entering this season after two straight first-round playoff flameouts. With an aging core of veterans, no cap flexibility, and just about every future asset already traded, it was now-or-never for the Bucks to make Giannis Antetokounmpo’s pairing with Damian Lillard work.
On Thursday, CBS Sports published a report stating rival executives are closely watching the Bucks with a belief that Giannis could become available if the team doesn’t right the ship. That is really just common sense, but the story does include two bits of information: 1) Antetokounmpo is apparently eyeing the Miami Heat and Brooklyn Nets as potential destinations, 2) these rival executives think a Giannis deal could happen this season before February’s trade deadline.
Antetokounmpo signed a three-year extension with the Bucks one year ago following the franchise’s trade for Lillard. He’s locked in for the next two seasons after this one, and then has a player option for more than $62 million in 2027-28. He turns 30 years old in Dec., and already has an NBA championship, an NBA Finals MVP, two NBA MVP trophies, and one Defensive Player of the Year award on his mantle. I’d say Antetokounmpo is the second-best player in the world behind Nikola Jokic right now, though your opinion on that may vary.
Bucks fans have been through this song and dance so many times before Giannis even reaches his 30th birthday. Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane for some old rumors about Antetokounmpo leaving the Bucks as another round starts to heat up.
2019: Giannis free agency talk heats up after Eastern Conference Finals loss
Antetokounmpo won his first NBA MVP in 2019 by powering the Bucks to the an NBA-best 60 wins. The Bucks reached the Eastern Conference Finals, where they took a 2-0 lead on the Toronto Raptors. It sure seemed like Giannis would be playing in the NBA Finals for the first time in his career.
Instead, the Raptors won four straight games, and eventually won the championship over the Golden State Warriors when Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson each suffered brutal injuries. As Giannis reported for training camp the next year, there was already rampant speculation about his future. Here’s how he addressed it training camp:
“I feel like if you have a great team, and our goal is to win a championship and be the last team standing and get better each day, I think it’s disrespectful towards my teammates talking about my free agency and what I’m going through,” Antetokounmpo said. “So when the time is right, we’re all gonna talk about it. I don’t think the time is right.”
Shortly after, there was a quote attributed to Giannis from a Harvard Business School interview that said “If we’re underperforming in the NBA next year, deciding whether to sign becomes a lot more difficult.” This was apparently totally bogus.
Giannis refuted the quote attributed to him in the Harvard Business School case study. Said his girlfriend asked him yesterday if he really said that. “If you kind of read the last quote, I’ve never used those words in my life,” he responded.
— Matt Velazquez (@Matt_Velazquez) October 24, 2019
2020: Giannis speculation reaches fever pitch after bubble defeat
The Bucks were again the best team in basketball in 2019-2020 despite the season being interrupted by the Covid pandemic. Milwaukee won an NBA-best 56 games, and Antetokounmpo won his second straight MVP.
As the season restarted in the bubble, it felt like Milwaukee had enormous pressure on their shoulders. They couldn’t handle it: The Bucks dropped the first three games of their second-round series against the Heat before Giannis went down with an ankle injury. He didn’t play in Game 5, and the Heat put the finishing touches on a shocking playoff series win.
Giannis said he wouldn’t request a trade after the elimination, and met with Bucks ownership to discuss his future shortly thereafter.
“Some see a wall and go in [another direction]. I plow through it,” he said. “We just have to get better as a team, individually and get right back at it next season.”
At the time, I wrote about all the ways the Bucks failed Giannis, and not the other way around.
2021: The Jrue Holiday trade, the contract extension, and Giannis’ first championship
The Bucks had to come out swinging after their bubble elimination to the Heat. They responded by completing a huge trade with New Orleans for Jrue Holiday, with three first round draft picks, Eric Bledsoe, and George Hill going back in the deal. Milwaukee thought it had a trade for Kings shooter Bogdan Bogdanovic too, but that fell apart amid rumors of tampering.
On Dec. 15, Antetokounmpo ended the reckless speculation about his future by signing a max extension with the Bucks. Milwaukee slipped to the No. 3 seed in the East during the regular season, and Nikola Jokic usurped Giannis for MVP. It all came together for the Bucks in the playoffs.
The Bucks somehow survived a second-round series against the Brooklyn Nets when Kevin Durant’s tippy-toe was on the line for a potential game-winning shot in Game 7. Milwaukee reached the NBA Finals, where they went down 2-0 to the Phoenix Suns before rallying back for four straight wins. Giannis put up 50 points, 14 rebounds, and five blocks in the Game 6 clincher. I wrote about Giannis’ amazing life story representing everything good in sports.
2023: Giannis trade rumors heat up again before Dame trade
The Bucks bid for back-to-back titles fell short in the 2022 NBA Playoffs when the Boston Celtics eliminated them in a classic seven-game second round series. Khris Middleton missed the entire series with injury.
The Bucks looked formidable again in 2023 until Antetokounmpo suffered an injury in Game 1 of the first round series vs. the Heat. Giannis would return for the final two games of the series, but it wasn’t enough. Miami had eliminated Milwaukee again in embarrassing fashion again.
The Bucks fired head coach Mike Budenholzer, and replaced him with first-time coach Adrian Griffin, who Antetokounmpo reportedly signed off on. It was then time for another round of Giannis trade speculation, this time brought out by Giannis himself with multiple comments made on podcasts and features.
“I’m a Milwaukee Buck, but most importantly I’m a winner. … If there is a better situation for me to win the Larry O’Brien I have to take that better situation.”
Giannis on his future with the Bucks. pic.twitter.com/XzucRXtmOv
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) September 13, 2023
But most importantly, I’m a winner. I want to win. And I have to do whatever it takes for me to win. And if there’s a better situation for me to win the Larry O’Brien, I have to take that better situation.”
It felt like Giannis was soft-launching a trade request. In another interview with the New York Times, Antetokounmpo applied direct pressure to the Bucks to remain competitive:
“Next summer it would make more sense for both parties. Even then, I don’t know,” Antetokounmpo said. “I would not be the best version of myself if I don’t know that everybody’s on the same page, everybody’s going for a championship, everybody’s going to sacrifice time away from their family like I do. And if I don’t feel that, I’m not signing.”
The Bucks responded by pulling off a trade for Damian Lillard out of nowhere. Giannis signed his current extension at the start of the season after the trade.
2024: Should we believe these latest Giannis rumors?
The first year of the Bucks’ Lillard experiment was nothing short of a disaster. Griffin was fired midway through the season, and replaced by Doc Rivers. The two-man game between Giannis and Dame that was supposed to be the NBA’s most unstoppable force lacked chemistry and cohesion. The Bucks won 49 games, but at no point did they ever really look like a championship threat. As soon the playoffs rolled around, Antetokounmpo got hurt again and missed the playoffs with a calf strain. The Bucks were eliminated in the first round by the Pacers.
Milwaukee’s made a few nice additions on the margins this summer with Gary Trent Jr., Delon Wright, and Taurean Prince, but they mostly kept their veteran core together. The pressure is on this season for the likes of Brook Lopez, Middleton, Pat Connaughton, and Bobby Portis as the remaining pieces of the 2021 championship team. So far, the Bucks have looked disjointed. It probably wasn’t a good sign when Dame and Giannis said they didn’t work out together all offseason.
Antetokounmpo has made it clear with his previous comments that he’s not satisfied with one championship. The Bucks don’t have many moves left to make at this point, and probably waited too long on dealing Portis and Middleton at minimum. The latest Giannis rumors make some logical sense, but then again that was also the case in the past. At every opportunity, Giannis has stayed loyal to Milwaukee.
I don’t doubt the CBS report that other executives are closely monitoring Antetokounmpo’s availability. Of course they are. At the same time, the idea that Giannis wants the Nets — expected to be one of the league’s worst teams this season — doesn’t pass the sniff test. For now, this is much ado about nothing.
It sure seems like this Bucks season is going to get worse before it gets better, though. This team has very little depth, Lillard appears to have lost a step, and they’re noticeably disjointed at both ends of the floor. When their eventual playoff flameout comes, it feels like something has to give, whether Milwaukee tries to trade Lillard/Lopez/Middleton, or whether a Giannis trade finally happens. No way will Milwaukee trade Antetokounmpo unless he fully pushes his way out. We’ve seen other stars do it before. For Giannis, after so many years of speculation, it’s only right to believe it when it actually happens.
